Walker recall effort in Wisconsin files more than 1M signatures

Madison
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The move to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is on the verge of history, with more than a million signatures on a petition turned in this week to the state’s Government Accountability Board, making it the largest recall effort in American history.

United Wisconsin, the group behind the recall effort, announced on Wednesday more than one million Wisconsinites signed the petition to recall Walker, making it “the most-participated-in major recall effort in American history.”

The number represents 185 percent of the number of signatures required for a recall and also represents nearly half - 46 percent - of the electorate. The recall numbers are just shy of Walker’s 2010 total votes received, 1.2 million votes.

More than 845,000 signatures were collected in the recall effort against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch.

“The collection of more than one million signatures represents a crystal clear indication of how strong the appetite is to stop the damage and turmoil that Scott Walker has caused Wisconsin,” said Ryan Lawler, board member with United Wisconsin, in a news release. “Scott Walker and his supporters tried to demean and marginalize recall circulators, but in Wisconsin winter, an army of more than 30,000 Wisconsin born-and-bred recall volunteers took to street corners, malls, places of worship, dinner tables and sidewalks to take their state back.”

The Denver Post calls Walker a “national conservative hero.” Walker was elected in 2010 during the mid-term elections which saw the GOP make great strides against the perception of President Obama’s inability in coping with the nation’s numerous economic woes.

Once in office, Walker quickly drew the ire of the state’s blue collar class when his aggressive politics targeted collective bargaining rights for most public workers.

“There is no challenge - both legal or otherwise - that will prevent these elections from going forward,” said Mike Tate, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, the Fond du Lac Reporter reports. “Scott Walker is going to be recalled.”